Needles have been used in medicine since at least as early as 1853, when Alexander Wood used one to administer morphine to a patient. Needle use is now ubiquitous. They are used for, among other duties, removal of blood and other fluids from patients, injections of medication and intravenous administration of fluids. The benefits of hypodermic needles to medicine are many, but there are some problems.
Needlestick injuries are very common. There were about 800,000 needlestick injuries in the Unites States in 1986 alone. Nurses, nurses' aides, phlebotomy technicians and doctors are subject to these injuries. They suffer needle stick injuries when removing blood-slippery needles from syringes or, more commonly, when recapping used needles. The latter mishap occurs when the health professional misses the small target that is the cap's opening, and stabs the hand or finger that holds the cap. Unsheathed needles are sometime accidentally placed in pockets, which can cause hip injuries.
30% of needlestick injuries happen to the above-mentioned health professionals. The other 70% occur in the chain of disposal. Uncapped needles often end up in plastic disposal bags. Those needles can puncture the bag and anyone who is in close contact with that bag.
Needlestick injuries are potentially very serious. Many blood-borne diseases may be transmitted from the patient to the health professional by inoculation through a needlestick injury. These include diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, herpes and, most ominously, hepatitis B and non-A non-B hepatitis. There is a 26% chance of contracting hepatitis B from any needlestick injury. Type B Hepatitis after Needle-Stick Exposure . . . L. B. Seeff et al., Ann. lntern. Med, 1978, 88; 285-293.
Though rare, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been transmitted through needlestick injuries. Such a case was reported in HIV Seroconversion After Needlestick, in New England J. Med., Aug. 28, 1986, p.582.
The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has adopted guidelines from the Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, in advising all health professionals not to recap needles. However, most health care workers still recap needles, for a variety of reasons. Some are bound by habits learned in the era before disposable needles and AIDS, others because they perceive the risk of injury from carrying an uncapped needle to a disposal bin is greater than the risk of recapping.
Numerous patents have been granted for devices to prevent needlestick injuries. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,539,042 and 4,573,975 disclose shields that surround the needle cap. U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,386 discloses a wide paddle-like device which grips the needle cap in its center.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,229 dispenses with needle recapping. Needles are placed on an adhesive pad which is then folded over to bury the needle, prior to disposal of the sandwich.
Retractable cover devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,659,330; 4,743,233; 4,735,618 and 4,725,267. After use the cover means is pushed up from its resting position, on the needle hub of the syringe barrel, to cover the needle.
The preceding patents require special extra attachments, with their attendant extra cost.
Canadian patent 915,038 does not use any extra fittings. It discloses a needle cap that attached to the needle hub. The cap has a slit which can accommodate the needle cannula. The slit width is less than the needle width, but the cannula can be forced into the cap's slit and be retained. Closure requires both hands, and there is some risk of needlestick.
Other devices have been invented that allow for disposal of uncapped used needles. Plastic disposal devices or containers are provided in many hospital rooms. The containers are impenetrable to needles. Such sharps buckets should be situated in every hospital room and area. That is the ideal, which is rarely achieved. The buckets fill up quickly, and users may be injured by needles protruding from full buckets when attempting to dispose of an additional needle. Needle users must journey to the sharps bucket which is often in another room, in order to dispose of an uncapped needle Phlebotomy technicians take many blood specimens, and are more apt to recap a needle than to continually return to a needle receptacle in order to discard the uncapped used needle.
The present invention provides for a needle and cap combination which allows for capping of the used needle with the use of one hand only. During capping, that hand does not come near the needle's point. Closure requires pushing the side of the cap against a convenient surface to pivot the cap and thus cover the needle. In another embodiment, a further push locks the cap, preventing subsequent accidental uncovering of the needle through pivotal action. In a further embodiment, an additional twist can further secure the cap covering the needle, to make accidental uncovering of the needle almost impossible. A further embodiment discloses a method to modify the needle, to render it subsequently unusable